you who held me under
by Pencilwalla
Summary: AU. There is something horribly familiar about Barian Lord Merag.


Merag's voice puts him on his knees.

Ryoga doesn't even feel the impact of his falling to the ground, the rough ground of Sargasso digging into his palms. It's impossible, what he's hearing. That voice, feminine and hard and ice cold. Those eyes that he knows better than his own. That insolent, arrogant tone – the tone of a girl (woman, now?) with confidence and power and ambition. He remembers it higher and softer and more childish, a little girl yelling at him and stealing his cards and climbing up trees in ruffled skirts without a care.

"Rio," He whispers, letting his dead little sister's name pass his lips for the first time since she died of blood loss in his arms. It is absolutely impossible that Barian Lord Merag, the leader of the enemy, could have that voice, and yet Ryoga can't be wrong. He has heard Rio's voice in his nightmares every night since the crash.

Her blood all over him, her cry of fear, the ear-splitting screech of the collision, the moment of pure despair when he realized he was all alone – it is all burned into his memory like a fresh brand, unhealed, raw and infected with guilt and pain. This alien with blue skin and gem-studded flesh and armored shoulders cannot sound like that by coincidence.

He realizes, dimly, that they are dueling – that over there Yuuma is fighting Vector while he steps on Shingetsu's corpse, that Kaito and Misael are clashing, Galaxy-Eyes against Galaxy-Eyes, and that Merag/Rio is wearing a delicate, beautiful duel disk on her arm.

The idea of lifting a finger against Rio is blasphemous to him, but then she speaks to him – "I'll be your opponent," and his body obeys. There's no defying her, not when somehow she died and he lived, not when she's come back as something else to haunt him. He sets his disk in silence, and whether anyone notices his odd behavior, he doesn't know.

She summons her Over-Hundred Numbers in the first turn, a beast wth wings of blizzards, and sets three cards, and activates some card that prevents her from taking damage from the field. He notes, in some small part of his mind that remembers he is here to help Yuuma, that the Sargasso Sea's effect will be a problem.

Then it's his turn. Merag is looking at him with Rio's eyes, and oh, Rio would be so angry if he held back, and yet his fingers won't move to play a single card against her, even when she grows impatient and yells at him to take his turn.

He ends this turn with an empty field and a full hand. And the next. And the next. Merag's voice is getting louder, like one of Rio's temper tantrums – she was wild once she lost her temper and she would beat him until he fled – why doesn't he attack, why doesn't he defend, what the hell is he doing, is he mocking her – as she deals him damage every turn, as she holds off on delivering the killing blow.

"Why? Why do you keep just taking it?" She screams. She's shaking with anger, and she's glorious. Strong. He takes a sick kind of pride in it, that his twin was reborn like this, with so much power. At least he didn't ruin her. At least she doesn't need him anymore, and he can't fail her.

"This is just what I deserve," He tries to tell her. His voice doesn't reach her, though, it's too soft, and there's blood in his mouth, muffling him.

"I'll put you out of your misery, then," she snarls, and she draws her next card with such force that it leaves an aura trail in the air. Her monster turns its head, fixes Ryoga in its cold dead eyes. He doesn't move, or flinch, or even try to get to his feet.

He is in pain, from taking attack after attack, bruised and bloody and broken. There's nothing left in him to fight back with. No matter how much Merag desires it, he can't play even a single card against her, not when his hands are wet with her blood.

Her next attack sends him flying, and then he hits the ground, hard, and there's a terrible snapping sound and Yuuma screams, so loudly that Ryoga notices, and then nothing.

++++ BONUS SCENE +++

He can't be dead.

Yuuma flings himself across the gap between Ryoga's field and his, and he hardly hear Astral's admonishment as he lands heavily on his stomach. He forces himself upright, ignorant of the pain, and rushes to Shark's side, where Kaito and Orbital 7 are kneeling already. He looks to Kaito, expecting a scowl or a stoic nothing or even some exasperation, like Yuuma is being stupid and impulsive. But Kaito looks like he's been punched in the stomach. He looks like Yuuma feels, no comfort there.

"He's okay. He is okay, right?" He pushes Kotori and Tetsuo aside, fumbling at Shark's body. There's blood all over his chin and mouth, and on the front of his shirt. His skin, where Yuuma feels frantically for a pulse, is too cold. His eyes are closed. The fang he always wears around his neck is embedded in his chest from the force of his landing.

There's no heartbeat, no breath when he lays a hand over his mouth, no movement when he shakes him desperately.

"Shark…?"

"He's gone." Kaito says numbly. He's still just kneeling there. "Looks like he broke his neck when he hit the ground."

Orbital 7 babbles something out about x-rays and cervical vertebrae, but Yuuma only here's 'He's gone' on repeat, over and over, the sickening truth. Shark can't be gone. He can't be gone. And yet he's too still and too white and too cold to be here.

"Ryoga?"

There's a girl. A girl whose hair looks like Merag's spikes, a girl whose voice sounds like Merag's voice, a girl whose face is hauntingly familiar. She's standing behind him, eyes wide and teary, confused.

And Merag is gone, and Vector and Alit and Misael had all looked like humans, and Yuuma puts two and two together even as he moves to keep his body between Shark and Merag.

"Ryoga? Why are you asleep at a time like this?" She drops down beside him, and reaches for Shark's corpse, and Yuuma tries to pull her away, hasn't she hurt him enough, doesn't she know she's killed his best friend, but she pushes past.

"Please wake up. Mom and Dad are…you have to wake up." Tears fall from her face to Shark's. All the confidence has faded form her voice, and she's childlike, a little girl's voice from a female Shark's body. "Please? I'll stop stealing your cards…you can yell at me as much as you want…just wake up now…"

"Who are you?" Kaito asks.

"Rio." She sniffs, and Yuuma wants to close his eyes and ears. He can't bear anymore. "Rio Kamishiro. What's happened to my big brother?"

"He's dead." Kaito says, and Yuuma makes a strangled sound as he covers his ears – he's can't hear it, not yet, and Rio, whoever she is, shakes Shark like maybe she can knock the life into him as easily as she snuffed it out, and they fill the empty Sea of Sargasso with the sounds of their grief, and still Shark lies cold and still and dead, dead, _dead_.


End file.
